


Free from the ties that bind

by starlightwalking



Category: Fast and the Furious Series
Genre: Awkward Tension, Bisexuality, Brian: is Like That, Dom: hope this doesn't awaken anything in me, F/M, First Kiss, M/M, Post-Fast & Furious (2009), Stream of Consciousness, i am too emotionally invested in these ridiculous fucking movies, set from the end of fast 4 through the beginning of fast 5
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-03
Updated: 2020-02-03
Packaged: 2021-02-20 19:09:58
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,115
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22548328
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/starlightwalking/pseuds/starlightwalking
Summary: “You kissed me,” he blurted out at the same moment when Dom said, “Wanted to apologize for—”They stopped, and this time Dom met his eyes.“It didn’t mean a thing,” Dom rumbled. “It was just—a stupid impulse.”
Relationships: Brian O'Conner/Dominic Toretto, Brian O'Conner/Mia Toretto
Comments: 25
Kudos: 213





	Free from the ties that bind

**Author's Note:**

> Title nabbed from the Into the Woods song "No More," because it fits but also because the words "running away" immediately get that song stuck in my head. ("Running away - let's do it; free from the ties that bind")
> 
> this is like, 6 months overdue, but i SAID I WOULD WRITE IT AND I DID. thank you fast 9 trailer for dropping and making me lose my shit and motivate me to finally wrap this up dfjdhj
> 
> ok ok ok last summer my friends and i binged all the F&F movies and then went to see Hobbes & Shaw together, and then I made my qpp/beta reader watch them with me (tho we only just finished furious 7...ldr smh) and my biggest takeaway from these movies is that BRIAN AND DOM SHOULD HAVE KISSED AT THE END OF FAST 4 OK!! so here you go, have a fic where they DO
> 
> the first bit is stolen straight from the end of fast 4; [this youtube video](https://youtu.be/1t867tCFccE?list=PLZbXA4lyCtqpThNCLJ3mSJ_eUnyiIa9ss&t=54) saved my ass while writing
> 
> anyway this is for you fast & furious squad!!!

He could hear the helicopter blades whirring and the sirens wailing and he grimaced as he saw Dom hear it too. Dom looked away sharply as Brian panted, trying to get his breathing under control, trying not to be too aware of how tenderly Dom had held him, how softly he had spoken, the depth of the concern in his eyes as he helped Brian lean against the car, and how all that had vanished into alertness, into dread as he remembered where he was and what he'd done. As Brian remembered all that, too, and remembered that Dom was still a criminal and damn it all he was still a cop and it didn't matter that Dom had just saved his goddamn life, _again_ , that Dom was still wanted and probably wouldn't be pardoned even for bringing down Braga, and that staying here with Brian was a bad idea. No matter how much Brian wanted him to stay, beyond his better judgement.

So: "You gotta get outta here," he said, glancing up at Dom for a second, before looking back away, not wanting Dom to see his concern, but Dom just kept on staring up at the helicopter flying inexorably closer. Besides, every bone in his body hurt like a bitch, and he wasn't faking his grimace as he looked down. Yeah, just think about the pain, and the blood, and the dead man Dom had just killed for Brian's sake. Fuck, maybe not that last part.

"I ain't running anymore," Dom rumbled, and there he was again with that _sincerity_ , that tenderness Brian's always known he's had, the thing that kept him coming back to the Toretto shop for so long, the thing that made him give Dom the keys to his car when by all rights he should've arrested him. That honesty, that goodness that not a single one of Brian's coworkers on the "right" side of the law possessed.

And then he heard what Dom just said, really heard it, and locked eyes with him. That was the stupidest possible decision for Dom in that moment, and they both knew it, and somewhere inside they both knew why he was gonna do it anyway, and it scared them both. Or maybe that was Brian just projecting.

And fuck, if Dom would just look away—look back at the helicopter, look at the flashing lights on the horizon growing ever larger as they approached, look anywhere except into Brian's eyes—then maybe Brian could focus on the pain, on the come-down from the chase, on the victory of killing Fenix and taking down Braga. But no, Dom kept _fucking staring_ at him, and Brian kept fucking staring right back, and if he hadn't been so exhausted and injured he might have leaned forward a little just to be closer to Dom and who _knows_ what kind of idiotic thing he could've done then.

He licked his lips as he thought—to get the blood and sweat off them, he told himself, but Dom was watching him and _fuck_ if he wasn't thinking about if it was Dom kissing it all away—before he blurted out, "I gotta ask you something," without even thinking, without even knowing what the hell it was he was gonna ask, 'cuz it sure wasn't anything like what he was thinking about right then.

"Yeah?" Dom said, his voice low and gravely, way too calm for what was happening around them.

Brian looked away then because fuck, he needed to come up with something to ask now, and he needed to do it fast. The past month flashed through his mind as he scrambled to come up with something, anything to say that wouldn't sound fucking stupid, wouldn't be too vulnerable, wouldn't make Dom want to leave despite what he'd just said—

"You know I would've won that race if you didn't cheat, right?" he said, all quick and in one breath, because _yeah_ he was still sore about that, he was man enough to admit it. Not man enough to admit to himself that he had a stupid high school crush on his girlfriend's brother, if she'd even call him her boyfriend after all this shit not to even _mention_ the hard-on he had for Dom, but. Well, he'd lost his train of thought somewhere around the slight crinkle around Dom's eyes and the faux-concern as he said, "You hit your head hard," as if the notion Brian could beat him at anything was ridiculous.

And it _wasn't_ , Brian really believed he could've won, but in that moment he was so glad to be alive and that Dom was with him, that Dom wasn't going anywhere ( _yet_ , not yet), that he laughed—and immediately regretted it as pain shot up his belly and he remembered he'd been beat to shit not five minutes earlier, and he gasped out, "Don't make me laugh."

And Dom was _smiling_ , smiling like Brian hadn't seen him smile since Letty died—and _fuck_ everything about this was fucked up, that he was glad to see Dom happy and glad he wasn't running to safety and glad that Letty wasn't there to take Dom's eyes off him and glad that Mia wasn't there to make him feel more guilty than he did already—

And then the only thing Brian could feel was Dom, leaning forward and kissing him, soft and swift and salty, and his brain short-circuited, tapped out like the rest of him, and before he could register what had just happened (let alone _do_ anything about it) the cop cars pulled up and Dom was standing, hands in the air, ready to be cuffed, resigned to his fate.

There wasn't enough time for him to dwell on it, not with everything happening: Dom getting shoved into the back of a police car right alongside Braga, Brian getting hauled to the hospital, patched up, interrogated by everyone from Penning to Stasiak (seriously, _fuck_ that guy, it took all of Brian's strength not to deck him every time he said something snide about Dom), and then finally, _finally_ reunited with Mia—not to hug her, to kiss her, to be with her, but to talk to her about whatever the hell was going to happen with Dom.

"He's going to jail," Mia said, not looking him in the eye.

"No, he's not," Brian said emphatically, surprising himself with how much he meant it. "He took down Braga. I couldn't have done it without him. We'll get the best damn lawyer we can and we'll keep him out of there." He took a deep breath. "I know as well as you do that he can't go back there again."

Mia looked at him, then, and Brian realized that ah, shit, he might have a chance with her, because she thought he was doing this for _her_. And he was—he cared about her, down to the bone—but he cared about Dom just as much. And if he stood any chance of having Mia with him, of having Dom with them both, he couldn't talk to Mia about whatever it was between him and Dom.

But Brian knew, _whatever_ it was, he wasn't running anymore. Dom hadn't run from him, and he wasn't gonna run from Dom. Not this time.

It wasn't until Dom's sentenced, and all their plans have failed, that he _really_ knew, though. Dom was watching him as they take him away, eyes on Brian as much as they were on Mia, and Brian told him without the words: _I know. I know. And I won't let you down._

It was quiet when Brian drove Mia back home. He killed the engine, but she didn't get out. He didn't expect her to.

"He's going to jail," she said, soft, daring him to confirm it. Daring him to take responsibility.

Brian _was_ gonna take responsibility, but not like she thought. "No, he's not," he said again.

"What the hell, Brian!" she shouted, erupting into anger. "You're a fucking cop! You know better than anyone what's gonna happen! I hope you know for the rest of your goddamn life that it's _your fault_!"

"It _is_ my fault," he yelled back, "and that's why I know he's not! Dammit, Mia—I'm _not_ letting this happen!"

"You said that months ago, and look where we are now! You said—"

"I said he wasn't going to jail, and I meant it," Brian growled. "We tried the legal option. That didn't work. Well, fine. We'll just have to do it the other way."

Mia looked like she was about to scream, but she just stared. "You are the craziest son of a bitch there ever was," she muttered, leaning back in the passenger seat.

"No," Brian said. "That's Dom. Which is why we're gonna break him out."

"Don't do this for me," Mia said, her voice low. "Look. You've done enough—more than enough. You don't have to throw your whole career away to rescue my brother." She paused. "Even if it _is_ your fault."

"I'm not doing this just for you," Brian said hoarsely. "I'm doing it for Dom. For—for me." He took a deep breath. "He's a good man. He saved my life. He—" yeah, he was gonna say it, wasn't he, he _had_ to— "Mia, he _kissed_ me. He kissed me and I don't know what to make of that but I need him around to find out."

She was quiet for a long time. His mind had gone blank; he was just waiting for her to say something, anything. And then—

"Oh, I am so gonna kick his ass when we break him out," and her voice was only a little higher than usual.

Brian stared. "What?"

She slammed her fist on the dash. "He thinks just because he's my older brother he can take everything that's mine? My toys, my car, my family—now my fucking boyfriend? I called dibs on you, fair and square!"

"Boyfriend?" Brian said, because his dumb ass can only think of one thing at a time.

Mia whipped her head around and glared. "Yeah you're my boyfriend!" she exclaimed. "After all this? After you just said you'd drop everything for me and him? After trying to get him back home in a hundred ways? Yeah, you're a fucking keeper, Brian O'Conner," and she grabbed him and kissed him so hard he saw stars, then dragged him into the house and dressed him down like he deserved, and when she was done she mumbled into his ear, "I am going to teach that boy in a man's car how to share his things if it's the last thing I do."

"Are you talking about me or Dom?" Brian asked, still dazed.

She bit his lip as she kissed him, and whispered, "I meant him...but you too."

* * *

Saving Dom's ass was just something that had to be done, and they did it in that exhilarating, adrenaline-filled way they did everything. It was when they'd escaped that things began to feel difficult.

Brian tried not to pay too close attention as Dom and Mia hugged and cried and Dom whispered something to his sister that sounded something like, "I knew you'd come, I knew you would, you and him both."

They had to split up after that as they free-fall through Latinoamérica—sometimes it was Brian and Mia, sometimes it was Mia and Dom, and Brian was almost grateful that neither of them wanted to leave Mia by herself because that would mean it was the two of them together, alone, and shit, he was _not_ ready for that.

It wasn't until Rio, when everything broke bad again, that they decided it was the three of them together from here on out, when Mia who glared at them both and told them _No_ , which honestly was what they needed to hear, wanted to hear, had for months, but the reason she put her foot down terrified Brian more than anything. _Him_? a _dad_? He was not ready for this, not ready at all, but if Mia was locked in so was he, and Dom would kill him if he showed even the slightest sign of jumping.

He wasn't gonna, of course. He loved Mia, loved their kid already, and dammit he loved Dom too. Different, but not too different.

Neither he nor Dom brought up the kiss in the months since it happened, and it was driving Brian crazy. Mia could tell, but he snapped at her if she tried to talk to him about it, so she told him it was all his problem if he wouldn't take her help. He kind of regretted that, but also not really, because this was _her brother_ they were talking about. It was weird enough that Brian was this caught up over another person, another dude, without throwing _that_ in the mix.

It was one of the first quiet moments they had together, Vince out in the favelas and Mia and Rosa busy with girl talk, and Brian was nursing a beer and all his anxieties when Dom came up to him. They'd talked before, about what was going on with Mia, about Brian's fears about fatherhood, but this time Dom stood shoulder to shoulder with him—too close. Brian was already antsy, but he turned away and regretted it immediately as Dom stiffened.

Brian ran a hand through his hair—it was getting long again, "noodly" as Mia had once teased him, he needed to get a cut—and looked back to Dom, trying to come up with something, anything to say. Dom was staring out into the sky, stars blinking in and out as wispy clouds passed overhead.

"We've gotta talk," Brian said at last, gruff as he can muster.

"Yeah, we do," Dom agreed slowly, still looking up and not at Brian.

Brian set his drink aside and tried to stop his hands from shaking. He couldn't stop fucking thinking about it, that brief moment Dom let his guard down, when the tension got too much and he cracked, and then he clammed up again like nothing had happened. He was still Dom, reckless and generous and tender, but not with Brian, at least not when they were alone.

Like they were now. Alone. And Brian had the perfect opportunity to bring it up but he couldn't think of any way to address it without sounding pathetic.

"You kissed me," he blurted out at the same moment when Dom said, "Wanted to apologize for—"

They stopped, both of them, and this time Dom met his eyes. He was guarded, tense, and Brian was too, but not for the same reasons Dom thought. Or, at least he hoped so.

"It didn't mean a thing," Dom rumbled. "It was just—a stupid impulse."

Brian ground his teeth because he'd spent the last several months fixating on that moment and imagining this one and no matter what he'd cooked up in a half-lovesick haze he hadn't thought Dom would _back down._ That wasn't the Dominic Toretto he knew.

"Like hell it was," Brian said. "If it was just an impulse it would've happened before _then._ " If it was just an impulse, he meant, then he would've been the one to initiate it, and it would've been way, way before then. Like, back-when-he-was-undercover before then.

"What are you talking about, O'Conner?" Dom said, crossing his arms like the guys in high school would do before they tried to gang up on him and Rome. And yeah, he and Rome would get their asses whooped half the time and get detention or worse _every_ time, but they gave as good as they got and Brian was not gonna back down _now_ , not for _this_ , not for _Dom_.

"You know exactly the hell what I mean," Brian snapped. He wasn't gonna bring Letty in on anything, it was way too soon for that and he knew Dom loved her true, but god _damnit_ if it wasn't for her things would've gone different all those years ago. Well, Mia too, but.

"It was stupid," Dom repeated. "Don't get hung up on it, O'Conner, I'm not even gay."

"Oh, _that's_ what you think I'm hung up about?" Brian glared, and he couldn't hold back any longer: he grabbed Dom by his shirt and dragged him into another kiss, this one longer than the first, a challenge instead of a secret, and he didn't let go until Dom gave in and kissed him back.

"Brian, what do you—" Fuck, Dom was _breathless_ , and _Brian_ had made him that way; if his heart hadn't been beating out of his damn chest already it would've been now.

"You gotta make up your mind about me, Toretto," he said, shoving his hands in his pockets. "I'm fucking bi, you idiot, I don't think you're a pussy for wanting to kiss a guy as pretty as me." He flashed Dom the goofiest smile he could and ducked as Dom swung at him in a leisurely, good-natured way.

"Just because two of us Torettos have been thoughtless enough to fall for your dumb ass—" Dom began, then stopped short as he realized what he'd said.

Brian's voice dropped to a husky murmur: "I mean it, Dom, you've gotta tell me which way you're swinging—not your fist, not just your preferences, I mean, that too, but— _fuck_ , Dom, I have been going over every interaction we've had since we first met and I think I love you as much as I love Mia, which, is so much it scares me shitless."

He said it all in one breath, and even now he found it hard to take in more air as he waited for Dom's response.

"Fuck," Dom said, eloquent as usual, and then: "You do?"

" _Yes_ you motherfucker!" Brian rolled his eyes. "And don't worry about Mia—she knows. She said something about you learning to share your toys, which. I don't want to get into right now, but—of fucking course I love you, Dom, has, well, _everything_ I've done since you kissed me not proven that? _Don't_ answer that," he warned. "And after what you've done for me, I know you love me too."

Dom looked like a deer caught in headlights, eyes wide and mouth agape. Brian just stared, daring him to disagree, unable to stop a smirk pulling at his lips as Dom realized he couldn't refute it, realized he'd already admitted it, until at last he gave up rationalizing and wiped that smirk off Brian's face the only way he knew how: with a kiss.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading and commenting!


End file.
